Copa Ciclismo - Moamba race

On Sunday the 6th of March the fourth Copa Ciclismo race took place, from Matola to Moamba and back along the EN4. There was quite a large turn-out for the race, with 21 entrants. The race started at 7:13 with Kallie setting a sedate warm-up pace. As we rounded Shoprite, where we would later end the race on the return leg, the pace started picking up with both Jan and Kallie working, soon replaced by others as the paceline started working. Halfway to Moamba the peloton split with a lead group composed of Jan, Mario, Miguel, Carlos, Patrick, Vicente, Grishone, Kinha, Cymon and Abilio. Unfortunately Abilio touched wheels and fell, but the peloton slowed to see if he could catch up.
At the Moamba turn the peloton turned right towards Moamba but then some confusion ensued as some cyclists turned around right away instead of heading towards Moamba. The chasing peloton also arrived but they went on to Moamba. Some cyclists were able to take advantage of this situation and sped off in a breakway while the stragglers were strung out in ones and twos. Some eventually joined together and began chasing. The cyclists were heading into a headwind which also made matters more difficult, but then who said cycling is easy!
The cyclists in the breakaway pressed on until one of them was dropped with a few km's to go leaving Miguel to solo to victory, with Jan a distant second and Carlos coming third half a minute behind, which considering that he was halfway to Moamba when the peloton turned early is quite a testament to his cycling. Mario and Kinha sprinted to the line and were joint 4th.
Two more groups of cyclists came in, with Rui rounding out the finishers with a well-deserved finish, considering he'd been off his bike for a few weeks.

Quite a few cyclists finished the day, 13 out of the 21 starters, with most managing a credible time. We had quite a few new cyclists to the racing scene (Liliana, Abub, Cymon and Tim), and we hope to see them in the future. The next race will be on the 20th of March, the Goba climb 10km time trial. A record of 26 minutes 37 sec was set in 2007 by Joao Rodrigues (who raced today but had a flat), so start practicing your climbing!

N.B. - A protest was lodged with the race organisers regarding the confusion of the Moamba turn-off and it was decided by the Race Comissaire to award finishing points but no time differences.

Race results:

Place	Name	Time
1	Miguel Teixeira	2:40:00
2	Jan de Jong	2:43:00
3	Carlos Sales	2:44:00
4	Mario Traversi	2:44:10
4	Kinha Fonseca	2:44:10
6	Vicente Mafumo	2:45:36
7	Sergio Grichone	2:49:20
8	Patrick Verissimo	2:49:20
8	Cymon Charney	2:49:20
10	Betinho Cuambe	2:52:18
11	Kallie Calitz	2:52:18
11	Theron Theunissen	2:52:18
13	Andre Ittmann	2:52:18
14	Simon Wright	2:52:18
15	Abilio Matusse	3:52:23
16	Rui Fernandes	3:22:00
DNF	Tim Doyle
DNF	Yazid Imran
DNF	Liliana Sultane
DNF	Abub Ibraino
DNF	Joao Rodrigues